Guantanamo Bay

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT GUANTANAMO BAY - PAGE 3

A U.S. federal appeals court Monday blocked the Bush administration from transferring a detainee at Guantanamo Bay to Algeria, where the prisoner says his life would be in danger from the government and Al Qaeda. The court is stopping any transfer while it weighs Ahmed Belbacha's request that he not be returned to his homeland. Belbacha was brought to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 from Pakistan. The U.S. military calls Belbacha as an enemy combatant, saying he associated with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Stung by reports implicating mental health specialists in prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, the nation's largest group of psychologists is considering banning its members from interrogations of terror suspects. The American Psychological Association, which is holding its annual meeting in San Francisco, is scheduled to vote Sunday on two competing measures concerning its 148,000 members' participation in military interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. military detention centers.

The U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay is a discredit to the American tradition of freedom and should close, Britain's attorney general said Wednesday, the strongest condemnation of the prison by a British official. "The existence of Guantanamo Bay remains unacceptable," Atty. Gen. Lord Goldsmith said. Goldsmith said it "would . . . be right to close Guantanamo as a matter of principle." "The historic tradition of the United States as a beacon of freedom, of liberty and of justice deserves the removal of this symbol," he said.

Demonstrators representing prisoners were among the 80 people arrested at the Supreme Court in Washington on Friday in a protest calling for the shutdown of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Protests were also held in other world capitals including Manila and Rome. Also Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled against four British men who contend they were systematically tortured and their religious rights abused throughout their two-year detention at Guantanamo Bay. The men had sued ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and individual U.S. military officials.

President Obama is again on a crusade to close Guantanamo Bay. It's a subject he was afraid to bring up during the election. Does he not understand that the prisoners on the hunger strike are not protesting the prison, but the fact they have been imprisoned without a trial? Are the protests of a handful of suspected terrorists more pressing than the economy, healthcare, nuclear weapons and terrorism that affect all Americans? I believe this whole Guantanamo Bay push is to appease his left-leaning supporters and enhance his legacy as a criminal rights advocate.

A Saudi prisoner who apparently killed himself at Guantanamo Bay had warned that some detainees were desperate. Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir al-Amri told interrogators in an April 2002 meeting that some felt they had "nothing to lose" and that guards should take extra precautions, according to a report provided to Guantanamo panels.

The Bush administration argued in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have sufficient opportunities to challenge their confinement. Lawyers for the foreign detainees contend the courts must get involved to rein in the White House and Congress, which changed the law to keep the detainee cases out of U.S. courts.

Yes, we should treat the prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay more humanely. We could start by giving them library privileges and HBO. Maybe we could even give them conjugal visits. What the heck, let's leave mints on their pillows!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will buy an Illinois prison that the Obama administration once considered as a successor to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday. Holder said the Thomson Correctional Center will house U.S. inmates and that there are no plans to revive a 2009 effort to move some Guantanamo detainees to the United States. Congress blocked funding for President Barack Obama's idea and tightly restricted all transfers from the camp at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that five Britons jailed at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be returned home in several weeks. But they could be arrested again upon arrival. Straw said at a news conference that discussion continued on the fate of the remaining four British citizens being held. "Once the detainees are back in the UK, I understand that the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activity," he said.